"Mandy the Outsider" by Norma Jean Lutz

About this book:

  “Mandy McMichael just doesn’t fit in.

Ten-year-old Mandy McMichael doesn’t fit in at her new school in Seattle. She’s very smart, but the “in crowd” teases her so much that she decides to play dumb just to be quiet their taunts. Then there’s her friendship with a Japanese family—and in 1939, with the world on the brink of the war, hers is not a popular position.

Mandy must find the balance between her desire for acceptance and her need to do right—to be the person God wants her to be. Will she pass this important test?”


Series: Book #22 in the “Sisters in Time” series. Click on the numbers to be taken to that review: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, & #21.


Spiritual Content- Church going & sermons; Talks about God & Jesus; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of Bibles & those in the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, Sunday school classes, sermons, & pastors; Mentions of Christmas, a play, & songs; A few mentions of blessings; A couple mentions of writing down a Scripture & reading it in class; A couple mentions of missionaries.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: nine forms of ‘dumb’; Bullies & being teased by them (Mandy gets teased & sees them tease a girl with walking disabilities, but does not do anything about it even though it bothers her, towards the end she decides not to care about the teasing and tries to talk to the other bullied girl); Seeing someone fixing to get hit; Many mentions of wars, fighting, deaths/killing, prejudice, & threats; Mentions of bullies, them picking on a girl with disabilities, & others trying to beat up Japanese-Americans and those who have them as friends; Mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of bad dreams;

             *Note: A few mentions of movies & actresses; A mention of zombies.

Sexual Content- A few mentions of a young couple kissing & being in love; A couple mentions of dates; A mention of jealousy; A mention of a man’s ripping muscles and broad chest;

             *Note: A mention of a burlesque house.

-Mandy McMichael, age 9-10
                                P.O.V. of Mandy

                                            Set in 1939-1940
                                                    142 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

While this is set just before the attack on Pearl Harbor (and therefore meaning Japanese-Americans were treated even worse by their fellow Americans), there is still quite a bit of prejudice and war comments in this book. Mandy was a decent character, but I think I would have preferred to see the point of view of all this from a Japanese-American girl as this series lacks Asian diversity. Mandy didn’t ever really stand up against the bullies, but by the end of the story, she did learn to not care what they said about her.   

See y’all on Friday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.